Date of Award
Spring 5-15-2020
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Type
Dissertation
Abstract
My dissertation examines the changes in love literature and notions of lovesickness in Iberia between the thirteenth and early sixteenth centuries in order to demonstrate how alterations in medieval portrayals of lovesickness reflect larger transformations in medicine, politics, and the medieval worldview. Early didactic literature treats love as a hygienic habit that must be learned through guides illustrating proper and improper love, while fifteenth- and sixteenth-century texts often depict love as an illness to be cured and avoided. During the High and Late Middle Ages, plagues and illnesses, medical translations into Latin and Romance languages, and the rise of university-educated doctors contributed to an increased awareness of medicine in Latin Christendom. Comparisons between early thirteenth-century didactic texts in both Arabic and Castilian and the love literature written at the turn of the sixteenth century reveal the way late medieval Iberian representations of lovesickness encapsulate the fears and fantasies of the era in order to control gender dynamics, politics, sexuality, and emotions.
Language
English (en)
Chair and Committee
Elo̟sa Palafox
Committee Members
Robert Henke, Martin Jacobs, Christian Schneider, Lynne Tatlock,
Recommended Citation
Neczypor, Janelle Elizabeth, "The Pathology of Passion: Lovesickness in Medieval Iberian Literature and Medicine" (2020). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2224.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/2224